Overwatch 2 devs explain massive Season 9 HP overhaul & DPS buffs to nerf healing

The Overwatch 2 developers have explained the massive HP overhaul and DPS buffs to reduce healing coming in Season 9.

Season 9 of Overwatch 2 is shaping up to be one of the biggest the game has ever seen. With new changes coming to the competitive mode, a new battle pass, and a Cowboy Bebop collaboration event, the future is looking bright. Alongside these changes came a slew of balance updates as the developers attempted to shift the game away from high levels of healing.

This comes in the form of a new DPS passive that reduces the amount of healing the target receives if you damage them. To ensure that this new passive isn’t too powerful, all heroes will be receiving a massive HP overhaul, giving them a bit more tankiness and survivability.

These controversial changes will all be arriving in Season 9, with the community at odds. However, the devs have come forward to explain their reasoning behind these changes.

OW2 devs give reasoning for new HP and DPS passive

In a recent developer blog, the devs explained the reasoning behind these changes. In regards to the hero health pool increase, the devs wanted to maintain a similar time-to-kill, with nearly all heroes becoming more accurate in Season 9.

“Since we’re increasing the average accuracy of nearly all heroes and want to keep time-to-kill similar, we’re also increasing everyone’s maximum health.”

This new health ends up requiring players to land about one more shot for most heroes before eliminating an enemy.

Season 9 also brings a new passive to all heroes, with everyone able to regenerate 20 health per second if they haven’t taken damage in the last 5 seconds. Supports instead have this time halved at 2.5 seconds instead.

This increased healing and higher HP pools means heroes will live longer and team fights will take longer to conclude, that’s where the new DPS passive comes into play.

“To combat some of the potentially extreme situations there, we’re also introducing a new Damage passive empowering them to more easily fulfill their role in securing eliminations, reduce in-combat healing, and potentially add an additional strategic layer to focus firing targets.”

These changes will all go live with Season 9 of Overwatch 2, launching on February 13, 2024.